Between 1969 and 1971, the US National Reconnaissance Office deployed its state-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicles over China in a bid to surreptitiously keep a watchful eye on a Beijing's nuclear programme.
In his article for The National Interest, the US magazine’s defence editor David Axe focused on declassified records which documented “[...] termination of the [US] ‘Tagboard’ drone system” which was tasked with spying on China in the late 1960s.
The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) released the documents on 21 March, 2019, fifty years after the Tagboard system, also known as the Lockheed-made D-21 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), entered service with the US Army.
Axe recalls that the 19-feet-wingspan D-21 was made of titanium and weighed 12 tons [10 tonnes], and that “in its early forms launched from atop a special variant of the A-12 reconnaissance plane, the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency]'s version of the Mach-3 [long-range, high-altitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft] SR-71.”
“The A-12, in essence, was the booster for the drone, climbing to 80,000 feet in altitude and accelerating to Mach 3.3 before separating from the pilotless vehicle”, the author notes.
The hope was that the D-21 would help the US military to spy on strategic targets, including those in China, “more reliably than a satellite could do at the time, and without risking a human pilot”.
There were also experiments with using the airplane to launch the D-21 drone, but these were abandoned when a crewmember was killed on the 4th test flight
pic.twitter.com/G8Bx6Bh3Fg
— Mike Hankins (@Hankinstien) January 26, 2020
"The Tagboard drone provides a unique technical capability to satisfy national requirements to conduct imagery reconnaissance operations against targets hostile or potentially hostile to the United States," the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed in a September 1969 memo.
Axe recalled that Tagbaord was a “complex and costly system”, with a price tag for two A-12 launch planes and 20 drones amounting to $440 million in 2019 dollars.
“A fatal crash during July 1966 abruptly ended the effort to combine the A-12 and D-21. The NRO added a rocket booster to the D-21 and migrated the system to a small fleet of lightly-modified B-52H bombers”, he noted.
Between 1969 and 1971, the NRO oversaw what it described as four “unsuccessful” D-21 missions over China, including the one on 4 March 4, 1971, when a drone failed to safely eject its film capsule.
“Although the main parachute canopy lowered the payload to the water surface, a subsequent pickup attempt by a Navy vessel was unsuccessful due to procedural errors, and the payload sank”, the NRO reported to the Defence Department at the time.
The D-21 drone on top the M-21, a variant of the A-12. During the fourth flight the D-21 hit the tail of the 21 and both planes and a pilot were lost. #aviation #AvGeek
#history #speed#USAF #CIA pic.twitter.com/ZbIkxhH0ry
— The Shadow of the Eagle (@clemente3000) December 23, 2019
In this context, Axe cited then-NRO director John McLucas as saying in an April 1971 memo that he had “become increasingly convinced” that the US military “should be expending our efforts on upgrading our satellite activities, rather than trying to continue with air-breathing vehicles”.
With the NRO concluding that “unsafe and unreliable drones” were unnecessary for strategic overhead reconnaissance , McLucas predicted the UAVs’ comeback in a different mission in the future.
"I believe that there is a weapons-carrying role for drones which ought to be exploited”, he was cited by Axe as saying.
The author concluded by recalling that a number of surviving D-21s are currently showcased at several US museums, with the wreck of another such UAV now on display in Beijing.

The new system is expected to add a fourth layer of air defence in Israel, which often suffers from aerial attacks by its enemies, such as the Hamas movement. Israel currently has separate defence systems to neutralise short-, medium- and long-range missile threats.
Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defence Systems has published a video showing its latest development, the Drone Dome system armed with a laser, in action, downing several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying as a swarm. According to Rafael, the system, mounted on an all-road vehicle, is capable of detecting nearby drones, identifying those who are not friendly, and performing a "hard kill" on hostile targets using its powerful laser.

In the video, the Drone Dome first downs a single flying drone and later turns to a swarm of three UAVs downing them one by one. Rafael noted that the system requires just one person to operate properly.
Rafael presented the Drone Dome system for the first time in 2016 , but back then it looked completely different. It was a set of equipment that could be set up in any spot, instead of being mounted on a vehicle. That model also used a "soft kill" method by jamming or interfering with the drone's command signal , forcing it to land or to switch off, instead of burning through it with a laser beam.

Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) cable and why it delayed

There's been a lot of press about delayed approval for the
Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) cable, which is due to connect Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines to the United States.
You can understand why this cable has gotten extra attention. Backers include Google, Facebook, and Pacific Light Data Communication (PLDC), which is owned by Chinese ISP Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group.
While the whole system is awaiting approval from U.S. authorities, Google and Facebook have requested that the FCC allow activation of the Taiwan and Philippines portions of the cable.
There are many regulatory and political issues at play, but I felt a bit of background on the trans-Pacific cable market is warranted amid these headlines.
As you read more about the PLCN, keep these four facts in mind.
Several submarine cables already connect China and the United States
PLCN would not be the first cable to link Hong Kong, or even mainland China, to the U.S. Existing cables include:
Trans Pacific Express (TPE): this cable entered service in 2008
Asia-America Gateway (AAG) : activated in 2009, this cable links many southeast Asian countries to the U.S. with landings in Hong Kong, Guam, Hawaii, and American West Cost.
New Cross Pacific (NCP) : the most recent cable to enter service in the Pacific, this cable connects China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan to the U.S.
Direct cables are not the only way data can travel between China and the United States
While cables that offer a direct path between countries is preferable in many cases, data can traverse any number of cables en route to its final destination.
Even though there several cables that link China and the United States directly, there's certainly a substantial amount of traffic that travels on an intra-Asian cables, like the Southeast Asia-Japan Cable or Asia Pacific Gateway, from China to Japan.
In Japan, this traffic can transfer to a trans-Pacific cable, such as FASTER or Unity , to reach the U.S.
PLCN is not the only planned cable between Hong Kong and the United States
PLCN is just one of several planned submarine cables that intend to link Hong Kong to the United States (or U.S. territories). These include:
Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) : this consortium cable involves several parties including Facebook, China Telecom, and China Unicom.
Hong Kong-Guam: Google is an investor in this cable alongside RTI
Bay to Bay Express (BtoBE) : this system is backed by Facebook, Amazon, and China Mobile
Content providers are investing in many new cables
Google and Facebook’s involvement in PLCN is one of many investments made by these two companies. And other content providers are following suit.

Chinese advances in space technology worrying NATO as expressed by Norway's intelligence

As we all know,Norway plays an important role in space exploration for key military space facilities used by the US, including the Globus II radar in Finnmark County, sometimes referred to as the world's most advanced radar for tracking satellites.
In recent years, the Chinese intelligence service has succeeded in obtaining advanced Norwegian technology several times, the Scandinavian country's intelligence service has stressed, warning that China is en route to becoming “a military superpower in Norway's neighbourhood”.
“With growing interest in the Arctic, we believe that China will continue to influence the situation, even in our proximity”, the head of the intelligence service, Lieutenant General Morten Haga Lunde, said, as quoted by national broadcaster NRK.
According to Haga Lunde, advanced technology with military application is especially sought after.
For instance, the Andøya Space Centre at Andenes in Nordland County, which is vying to become the first in Europe to launch satellites, has admittedly noticed penetration attempts.
“We notice that the interest and awareness of our sector is only getting bigger, even when it comes to penetration attempts”, Odd Roger Enoksen, Managing Director of the Andøya Space Centre, told High North News.
Focus 2020, the new threat assessment by the Intelligence Service (E-Tjenesten), also lists Norwegian space research facilities among the main targets for the Chinese intelligence service, which, it claims, has shown a high interest in dual-use technology . According to Focus 2020, Chinese intelligence has on several occasions succeeded in obtaining this type of advanced technology.
A report by the US Congress raised suspicions about China hacking US satellites via the Svalsat ground station on the Svalbard archipelago as early as 2007 and 2008.
Norway's Intelligence Service stressed that only a few of China's satellites are referred to as military, whereas civilian polar satellites are used for both intelligence and military purposes. Last year, China surpassed the US in the number of satellites launched, Focus 2020 stressed.
The Andøya Space Centre, formerly named Andøya Rocket Range, is a rocket launch site and spaceport on the island of Andøya (the northernmost in the Vesterålen archipelago) in Nordland County, Norway. Since 1962, over 1,200 sounding and suborbital rockets of various configurations have been launched from the site. It has about 100 employees and is considered one of Norway's most technologically advanced facilities.
To place Norway's concerns into a broader picture, the Scandinavian nation plays a key role in space exploration owing to important military space facilities used by the US, including the radar Globus II in Finnmark County, which is often labelled the world's most advanced radar for tracking satellites and has become the bone of contention in Norway's relations with Russia, who sees it as a spying tool. The radar is now being upgraded.

Facebook under fire from UK's government

Facebook and some other social media companies have recently come under fire for failing to remove allegedly misleading and harmful content from their platforms. Now, British regulatory authority Ofcom is reportedly set to be given a role in policing social media companies.
Britain’s media watchdog Ofcom will have more power in regulating social media companies in the UK, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Snapchat, and will make them accountable for harmful content, the BBC reported citing Digital Secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan.
Social media companies have long defended their rights to control unacceptable content on their platforms related to violence, terrorism or child abuse, but according to reports, this is now going to change in the UK.
"There are many platforms who ideally would not have wanted regulation, but I think that's changing”, Nicky Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes, was quoted as saying. “I think they understand now that actually regulation is coming”.
The information has not been confirmed by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport but it was reported that on Wednesday the government will present a draft of the new legislation related to online harm and will announce Ofcom’s new powers. So far, the authority has only been entitled to regulate British media, not social media platforms or internet safety. The news could cause some concerns among the public about potential censorship over online content.
Facebook has long been criticised for failing to take responsibility for content on its platform, including its refusal to remove political ads that may contain misinformation, citing its monitoring, rather than regulatory role.
Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook’s CEO, has maintained that the company was still accountable for removing harmful content related to child exploitation, terrorism, or violence from the its platform. However, in relation to political ads, he cited the policy of free speech and insisted that social media users were still able to make up their own minds about the political agenda.

This is why Trump has been too unfriendly to Huawei company

The Trump administration has long maintained that Chinese tech giant Huawei poses a threat to the national security of its allies and thus should not be granted access to their 5G networks. These warnings, however, have not stopped Great Britain from allowing Huawei to participate in building its next-generation infrastructure across the country.
US officials claim that Huawei has a secret capability to extract data from mobile networks globally through “back door” mechanisms that have been used for more than ten years, The Wall Street Journal first revealed. According to their report, this information remained highly classified until Washington decided to share the intelligence with its Western allies, including the UK and Germany, last year.
Some officials, including US National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien, maintain the US has evidence and can prove to its allies that Huawei can secretly retrieve “sensitive and personal” information in wireless 5G networks if granted access to the building of the necessary infrastructure.
“This is alarming because Chinese companies, by law, must comply with directives of the Chinese Communist Party”, O’Brien said on Tuesday, as quoted by The New York Times. “Strategically, we see a company that can use its position in the market to advance the aims of the Chinese Communist Party”.
According to US officials, the Chinese company has long had access to the “back doors” initially designed for use by law enforcement officials, but has been able to use them even without the knowledge or permission of national operators in countries where it has built its systems. Huawei officials have denied all these allegations.
The news comes after several American officials, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and a number of other high-ranking representatives of the Trump administration travelled to London throughout January to warn its transatlantic partner about the dangers Huawei could pose to UK national security if allowed to take part in the building of its 5G infrastructure.
Despite the warnings, Boris Johnson’s government still
allowed the Chinese company into Britain’s 5G networks, although in a limited capacity. Germany is also currently deciding on whether to work with the world’s leading 5G provider and according to reports, Berlin is inclined to grant Huawei access to its next-generation networks, despite Washington’s concerns.
So far, the Trump administration has maintained that it did not need to present any evidence about Huawei posing a threat to its allies and has just repeatedly argued that Huawei was required by Chinese law to provide Beijing with access to all of its data and information upon request. In May 2019, Washington blacklisted Huawei and 68 of its subsidiaries from working with American companies and called upon its allies to follow suit.
Both Beijing and Huawei officials have denied the accusations that the company has ever spied or intends to spy on foreign corporations and countries on behalf of the Chinese government.

What with the much thought of UK cabinet reshaffle

The structural reshuffle has been on everyone’s lips since Johnson’s overwhelming win in December, but the scale of it has been played down following speculation of a much wider Cabinet transformation after the general election.
Boris Johnson is expected to add the finishing touches to his updated Cabinet on Thursday, with sources cited by The Telegraph insisting it will be no “revolution” in terms of scale. The reshuffle will reportedly see a number of Remainers promoted at Leavers’ expense, like Geoffrey Cox, Andrea Leadsom, and Theresa Villiers.
For instance, Remain-supporting Chloe Smith has reportedly been tipped for a wider role as Minister for the Union at the Cabinet Office, while Oliver Dowden is expected to run the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport department.
Michael Gove, the Chancellor to the Duchy of Lancaster, is believed, per the British edition, to be in general control of post-Brexit trade talks with the EU at a reshuffled Cabinet Office.
Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers, is also expected to be sacked, with Home Secretary Priti Patel purportedly remaining the only member of the Cabinet who consistently voted against Theresa May's Brexit deal.
Devoted Brexiteers including Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, and Commons’ Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, all backed her deal at the so-called third Meaningful Vote stage last March."The labels of 'Leave' and 'Remain' were binned as soon as we got Brexit done - no one mentions them now", one source was cited by The Telegraph as saying.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Ms Leadsom, the Business Secretary, are both tipped to quit their roles, Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, has strengthened her position after she was repeatedly mentioned and quoted by Johnson in his trade speech last week.
The Cabinet reshuffle has been rumoured ever since Johnson won by a landslide in the 12 December general vote.
As the UK braces for stiff trade talks during its 11-month transition period, Michael Gove instructed businesses to prepare for “inevitable” border checks.
He insisted there is no way they can be avoided, as the UK is facing a “significant change", and stressed the country has enough time to handle it.

The new capability of Emotet trojan highlights the fact that one should always secure their device with a strong password.

The new capability of Emotet trojan highlights the fact that one should always secure their device with a strong password.
Initially identified in 2014, Emotet is a banking trojan that has been used in various malicious campaigns in the past for gaining financial data. An example is of 2017 when it infected Mcafee’s ClickProtect service to trick users by making them download a legitimate-looking Word document which in actuality contained the malware.
Now, it is back albeit with a new way to spread its infection. Featuring a new WiFi module; the trojan now focuses on compromising machines on the same WiFi network. Simply put: Emotet trojan can now spread through nearby wireless networks if the networks use insecure passwords.
To carry the entire operation out, it firstly uses wlanAPI.dll
calls to find wireless networks surrounding it excluding the current computer system it has infected.
Commenting on the reason wlanAPI.dll calls are used, researchers at BinaryDefence state that,
Once it finds such a network, it would connect to it automatically and by using brute-force techniques if it is password protected. Therefore, it searches for Windows-based devices and tries to find its way into user accounts through brute-forcing once again. If successful, it proceeds by adding malicious files for different purposes.
The first one is named “service.exe” which installs an additional service by the name of “Windows Defender System Service.” This helps the attacker maintain access to the system and in a very unsuspicious way indeed in the eyes of a layman.
An interesting thing here is that “although the connection to the server uses port 443, which is normally used for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encrypted communications, the connection is unencrypted HTTP.”

The new capability of Emotet trojan highlights the fact that one should always secure their device with a strong password.
Initially identified in 2014, Emotet is a banking trojan that has been used in various malicious campaigns in the past for gaining financial data. An example is of 2017 when it infected Mcafee’s ClickProtect service to trick users by making them download a legitimate-looking Word document which in actuality contained the malware.
Now, it is back albeit with a new way to spread its infection. Featuring a new WiFi module; the trojan now focuses on compromising machines on the same WiFi network. Simply put: Emotet trojan can now spread through nearby wireless networks if the networks use insecure passwords.
To carry the entire operation out, it firstly uses wlanAPI.dll
calls to find wireless networks surrounding it excluding the current computer system it has infected.
See: Hackers using Coronavirus emergency to spread Emotet malware
Commenting on the reason wlanAPI.dll calls are used, researchers at BinaryDefence state that,
Once it finds such a network, it would connect to it automatically and by using brute-force techniques if it is password protected. Therefore, it searches for Windows-based devices and tries to find its way into user accounts through brute-forcing once again. If successful, it proceeds by adding malicious files for different purposes.
The first one is named “service.exe” which installs an additional service by the name of “Windows Defender System Service.” This helps the attacker maintain access to the system and in a very unsuspicious way indeed in the eyes of a layman.
An interesting thing here is that “although the connection to the server uses port 443, which is normally used for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encrypted communications, the connection is unencrypted HTTP.”
Second is “worm.exe” with a timestamp of ” 04/16/2018 ” and containing a hard-coded IP address to its C2 server. Explaining this, BinaryDefence states how “this hints that this Wi-Fi spreading behavior has been running unnoticed for close to two years. This may be in part due to how infrequently the binary is dropped.”
A reason that could be attributed to it not being discovered despite the more-than-1-year-old timestamp is that when analyzed on a virtual machine, it does not show any spreading behavior without a WiFi card.
To sum up, both of these help the malware gain access to computers in such a way, particularly those that use weak passwords as brute-forcing them would become much easier this way too. These can then be used for hurting the victim through various ways such as data theft and even ransomware. Hence, we would recommend a range of precautions to guard against such attacks:
1. Add passwords to your user accounts even if you do not share your computer system with someone else. This at least gives you a shot to fight anyone trying to get in through such methods.
2. Use strong passwords, one that particularly could withstand a large number of attempts per second, a trillion if you’re an Edward Snowden fan and live near the NSA.
3. Try to monitor the processes running on your computer to see for suspicious ones. This could be easily done using Window’s in-built task manager.
4. Install a good anti-malware software that could also help in network monitoring and recognize “patterns that identify the malware message content.”
5. Last but not least avoid using public Wi-Fi spots.
Second is “worm.exe” with a timestamp of ” 04/16/2018 ” and containing a hard-coded IP address to its C2 server. Explaining this, BinaryDefence states how “this hints that this Wi-Fi spreading behavior has been running unnoticed for close to two years. This may be in part due to how infrequently the binary is dropped.”

Uganda people defense forces airforce airlifts pesticides to fight the locusts

UPDF airforce has airlifted pesticides to fight the locusts

US soldiers have already started withdrawing from 15 Iraqi military bases and leaving the country,

US soldiers have already started withdrawing from 15 Iraqi military bases and leaving the country, member of the parliamentary Security and Defence Commission, Ali al-Qameni, was quoted as saying by the daily Baghdad Today.

The lawmaker reportedly added that Washington is still insisting on building up forces in the Ayn al-Asad and Erbil military bases, but noted that the Iraqi Parliament opposes this notion.

© AP PHOTO / ALI ABDUL HASSAN

U.S. Soldiers and journalists stand near a crater caused by Iranian bombing at Ain al-Asad air base, in Anbar, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020

Iraqi lawmakers voted for a non-binding motion to end all foreign military deployments in the country, including the American contingent, on 5 January following a US airstrike that killed major Iranian General, Qasem Soleimani, without discussing or clearing the operation with the country's authorities. The general was visiting the country to pass on the suggestion for normalising relations to Saudi Arabia, with which Tehran currently has no diplomatic ties.  

Washington's reaction to the news was mixed: while the US State Department said it was not intending to negotiate the withdrawal of forces, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated three days later that the two countries would discuss the reduction of American troops in Iraq. Additionally, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper revealed that American troops will not be stationed in in Iraq "interminably", but failed to clarify when they will leave.

© AP PHOTO / MARK WILSON, POOL

Will They Stay? US General Says Troops to Remain in Middle East for 'Quite a While'

The US also defended the actions that led to Soleimani's killing on 3 January and resulted in an escalation of tensions with Iran and the latter's retaliatory missile strikes on bases hosting American forces in Iraq. Washington believes that the airstrike was legitimate, while Iraqi lawmakers disagreed.